Island Nucklehead wrote:Frankly, the Canucks have bought into the hype that they are still an offensive machine.

The Canucks players or Canuck fans?

From what I see - the players aren't overestimating their offensive prowess at all.......and are attempting to play a very tight defensive checking style. If anything, I sometimes think they overdo it.

Four games in, we’re missing three regular forwards, and we’re already looking for ways to “save” Ryan Kesler?

Kesler will be fine. He’ll get his points just as much as Jason Garrison won’t be a point a game player through 82 games. I’ll reserve judgment on how much this team will be able to score until at least the ¼ point. As of right now, 15 goals in 4 games played is excellent production.

Kesler looks a lot slower this season. I would be curious to see if he ever regains his speed from his previous seasons before the groin tear against the Sharks. He still seems a bit tenative in his stride.

Island Nucklehead wrote:Frankly, the Canucks have bought into the hype that they are still an offensive machine. They are not. They have a deep, talented defence, they have quality goaltending, and they have two all-world offensive talents that require timely scoring help. Kesler is part of that scoring help, but imo his real value is his ability to play against the top oponnents, thus freeing the Sedins to do their thing. As long as he stays even or above the line he is checking, it's a Win for the Canucks.

I agree that we are not an offensive juggernaut, but, we do have a lot of offensive tools. The Twins are top 10 forwards. And, Kesler, Burrows Higgins and Hansen are all 20 goal scorers. And, we still have the wild cards in Kassian and Booth and Santorelli. In my opinion, we have a solid top 9, that -can- be an offensive powerhouse, but we lack depth outside the top 9. Plus, I see Torts has let our defense step up more than AV did. That should be good for anouher 20 goals a year (and 15 more goals against too).

Kesler will be fine. He’ll get his points just as much as Jason Garrison won’t be a point a game player through 82 games. I’ll reserve judgment on how much this team will be able to score until at least the ¼ point. As of right now, 15 goals in 4 games played is excellent production.

Not "save" jump-start!

I think we can all agree we missed the in-his-prime Kesler from his Selke trophy year as we haven't seen it since!

That's two frickin' long years to wait for Kesler to come around, I'm just hoping we can get our old Kesler back asap!

And yes RD, RK17 will come back into form I'm sure!

Kesler just needs to start playing more in front of the net and let Higgins be the playmaker or on the powerplay let the sedins and jg/eddie control the puck.

And in his best season, we had a horse of defensive center in Manny help take over some of the defensive duties, letting Kesler free to rip shit up on opposing teams, this is when we were steamrolling over teams and swept SJ aside like a little bitch. And now we don't have that, and SJ has won 10 straight vs this team that has had an injury riddled Kesler and no bonafide 3rd to speak of.

Which is why I wanted Shawn Matthias on our 3rd line to get this type of well balanced attack back, but that's another topic.

the 2011 Kesler had Torres, Samuelsson and sometimes Burrows on the wings.. Not Higgins n Hansen or Booth. Maybe after Burrows comes back from injury he will be put on the 2nd line.. and then we will see a chainge..

Tiger wrote:the 2011 Kesler had Torres, Samuelsson and sometimes Burrows on the wings.. Not Higgins n Hansen or Booth. Maybe after Burrows comes back from injury he will be put on the 2nd line.. and then we will see a chainge..

Hence, my Thomas Vaneck trade suggestion.

I definitely agree with your post however. If you're going to use Kesler in an offensive role, you need to give the guy some decent playmates.

If management isn't going to do this, then you're better off either using Kesler in a 'defense first' type role where he can score on turnovers, or, just playing him alongside the twins on regular 5 on 5 shifts......and thereby, putting 'all the eggs' in one basket to the point where even a concerted effort on the opposing teams' part would have trouble containing the one mega line.

Tiger wrote:the 2011 Kesler had Torres, Samuelsson and sometimes Burrows on the wings.. Not Higgins n Hansen or Booth. Maybe after Burrows comes back from injury he will be put on the 2nd line.. and then we will see a chainge..

I think you can all thank those weak-minded sisters who don't have the wherewithal to be truly elite players. They are really struggling to adapt under a tough demanding coach and a hard-nose system that requires the will and grit that these will never ever have (<- sound familiar?)

Need to jump start someone? Put em on their line. Need to jump start a couple of lines? Break em up. Need a jump to your dead battery? They'll do it without cables.